View source for Japanese seaplane carrier Wakamiya

{{short description|Seaplane carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy}}
{{For|the Japanese city|Wakamiya, Fukuoka}}
{{other ships|Japanese ship Wakamiya}}
{{other uses|Wakamiya (disambiguation){{!}}Wakamiya}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}}
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|Ship image=[[File:Wakamiya.jpg|300px|Japanese seaplane carrier "Wakamiya"]]
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{{Infobox ship career
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|Ship name=''Lethington''
|Ship owner=
* 1901: William R. Rea
* 1905: [[Nippon Yusen|Nippon Yusen Shipping]]

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|Ship registry=
* 1901: {{flagicon|United Kingdom|civil}} [[Belfast]]
* 1905: {{flagicon|Japan|civil}} [[Kure]]

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|Ship builder=[[Robert Duncan and company]], [[Port Glasgow]]
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|Ship laid down= 
|Ship launched= 21 September 1900
|Ship completed=October 1901
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|Ship notes=[[charter (ship)|charter]]ed by Russia during [[Russo-Japanese War]]; Captured by Japan on 12 January 1905
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{{Infobox ship career
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|Ship fate= Scrapped
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{{Infobox ship career
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|Ship country=Japan
|Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Empire of Japan|naval}}
|Ship name=''Wakamiya''
|Ship renamed=*''Takasaki Maru'' on 14 February 1905<ref>14 February 1905, Ministerial ordinance No. 119, Named capture steamships ''Okinoshima Maru'' and two vessels, Minister's Secretariat, Imperial Japanese Navy</ref>
*''Wakamiya Maru'' on 1 September 1905<ref>1 September 1905, Notice No. 120, Named capture steamships ''Wakamiya Maru'' and six vessels, Minister's Secretariat, Imperial Japanese Navy</ref>
*''Wakamiya'' on 1 June 1915<ref>1 June 1915, Notice No. 76, Transport ship ''Wakamiya Maru'' renamed warship ''Wakamiya'', Minister's Secretariat, Imperial Japanese Navy</ref>
|Ship reclassified=*Miscellaneous ship on 14 February 1905
*Rented to NYK Line on 22 March 1907
*Returned to IJN and reclassified transport ship on 9 March 1912
*2nd class coast defence ship on 1 June 1915
*Aircraft carrier on 1 April 1920
|Ship acquired=1913 
|Ship commissioned= 17 August 1914 
|Ship decommissioned= 
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|Ship struck= 1 April 1931
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|Ship fate= Sold to Eizo Aoki on 26 November 1931, scrapped in 1932
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{{Infobox ship characteristics
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|Ship type=[[Seaplane tender|Seaplane carrier]]
|Ship displacement={{convert|7720|LT|t|0|abbr=on}}
|Ship length={{convert|111.25|m|ftin|abbr=on}}
|Ship beam= {{convert|14.6|m|ftin|abbr=on}}
|Ship draught= {{convert|5.8|m|ftin|abbr=on}}
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|Ship propulsion=VTE engines, 3 boilers, 1 shaft, {{convert|1590|ihp|abbr=on}}
|Ship speed={{convert|10|kn|lk=in}}
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|Ship complement= 234
|Ship sensors=
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|Ship armament=*2 × {{convert|3.1|in|mm|abbr=on}}/40 DP guns
*2 × 47 mm AA guns
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|Ship aircraft=4 × [[Farman MF.11]] seaplanes
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}}
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'''''Wakamiya''''' ({{langx|ja|若宮丸}}, later {{lang|ja|若宮艦}}) was a [[seaplane carrier]] of the [[Imperial Japanese Navy]] and the first Japanese [[aircraft carrier]]. She was converted from a transport ship into a seaplane carrier and commissioned in August 1914. She was equipped with four Japanese-built French [[Farman Aviation Works|Maurice Farman]] seaplanes (powered by [[Renault]] {{convert|70|HP|abbr=on}} engines). In September 1914, she conducted the world's first naval-launched air raids.

==Early career==
''Wakamiya'' was initially the Russian freighter '''''Lethington''''', built by Duncan in Port Glasgow, United Kingdom, laid down in 1900 and launched 21 September 1900. She was captured on a voyage from [[Cardiff]] to [[Vladivostok]] during the [[Russo-Japanese War]] near [[Okinoshima, Shimane|Okinoshima]] in 1905 by the Japanese torpedo boat ''TB No. 72''. She was acquired by the Japanese government, renamed ''Takasaki-Maru'' until given the official name of ''Wakamiya-Maru'' on 1 September, and from 1907 was managed as a transport ship by [[Nippon Yusen|NYK]].<ref>[http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/nyk.htm Source NYK] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060518102731/http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/nyk.htm |date=18 May 2006 }}</ref>

In 1913 she was transferred to the Imperial Japanese Navy and converted to a seaplane carrier, being completed on 17 August 1914. She was a 7,720-ton ship, with a complement of 234. She had two seaplanes on deck and two in reserve. ''Wakamiya'' did not possess a [[aircraft catapult|catapult]]; the seaplanes were lowered onto the water with a crane, whence they would take off, and then be retrieved from the water once their mission was completed.

==Siege of Qingdao==
From 5 September 1914, ''Wakamiya'' conducted the world's first naval-launched air raids during the first months of [[World War I|the First World War]] from [[Kiaochow Bay]] off [[Qingdao]], which is located in China. On 6 September 1914 a Farman aircraft launched by ''Wakamiya'' attacked the Austro-Hungarian cruiser ''Kaiserin Elisabeth'' and the German gunboat ''Jaguar'' in Qiaozhou Bay; neither ship was hit.<ref>Donko, Wilhelm M.: "Österreichs Kriegsmarine in Fernost: Alle Fahrten von Schiffen der k.(u.)k. Kriegsmarine nach Ostasien, Australien und Ozeanien von 1820 bis 1914". (epubli, Berlin, 2013). pp. 4, 156–162, 427.</ref><ref>Layman, R.D. ''Before the Aircraft Carrier'' (Naval Institute Press, 1989) does not name the ships and gives the date as 27 November.</ref> Her seaplanes bombarded German-held land targets (communication centers and command centers) in the [[Qingdao]] peninsula of [[Shandong]] province and ships in Qiaozhou Bay from September to 6 November 1914, during the [[Siege of Qingdao]].

[[File:JapaneseMauriceFarman.jpg|thumb|Japanese Maurice Farman seaplane, 1914.]]

British officers serving in the Battle of Qingdao commented on the operations of the ''Wakamiya'':

{{blockquote|Daily reconnaissances, weather permitting, were made by the Japanese seaplanes, working from the seaplane mother ship. They continued to bring valuable information throughout the siege. The mother ship was fitted with a couple of derricks for hoisting them in and out. During these reconnaissances they were constantly fired at by the German guns mostly with shrapnel, but were never hit. The Japanese airmen usually carried bombs for dropping on the enemy positions.|Report by Lieut. Commanders G.S.F. Nash and G. Gipps, [[HMS Triumph (1903)|HMS ''Triumph'']], 18 November 1914.<ref name="Wakamiya-Maru off Tsingtao">{{cite web|url=http://www.gwpda.org/naval/wtsing.htm|title=Wakamiya Maru at Tsingtao|accessdate=22 October 2016}}</ref>}}

[[File:FarmanTsingtao.jpg|thumb|Two of ''Wakamiya'''s Maurice Farman seaplanes stationed on land in Qingdao after 30 September 1914.]]
[[File:Farman-seaplane-japan.jpg|thumb|Three IJN Maurice Farman seaplanes]]
On 30 September, ''Wakamiya'' struck a German mine and had to be repaired for a week. On this occasion, her seaplanes were transferred on land at Shazikou (沙子口海岸), from where they accomplished further scouting and attack missions:

{{blockquote|The seaplane corps and three Henry Farman 100 h.p. seaplanes were, in consequence of the damage done to the mother ship, landed at the Base already established at Laoshan Harbour (to the West of the Bay so nearer to Qingdao), and this proved eminently satisfactory.|Report by Lieut. Commanders G.S.F. Nash and G. Gipps of HMS ''Triumph'', 18 November 1914.<ref name="Wakamiya-Maru off Tsingtao"/>}}

Altogether the seaplanes made 49 attacks, dropping 190 bombs on German defenses until the German surrender on 7 November. According to the British Naval Attaché to Tokyo, Captain Hon. [[Hubert Brand]], who had been stationed for three months on Imperial Japanese Navy warships throughout the battle, the bombs used by the seaplanes were about equivalent to 12 pdr. shells.<ref name="Wakamiya-Maru off Tsingtao"/>

==Later developments==
''Wakamiya'' was modified as a regular aircraft carrier with a launch platform on the foredeck in April 1920 (when she was renamed ''Wakamiya-kan'' 若宮艦). She accomplished in June 1920 the first Japanese take-off from an aircraft carrier. It is thought she had a pioneering role in developing aircraft carrier techniques for the [[Japanese aircraft carrier Hosho|Japanese aircraft carrier ''Hosho'']],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/japan/wakamiya-av.htm|title=IJN Wakamiya Aircraft Carrier|first=John|last=Pike|accessdate=22 October 2016}}</ref> the first purpose-built aircraft carrier in the world.<ref>"The Imperial Japanese Navy was a pioneer in naval aviation, having commissioned the world's first built-from-the-keel-up carrier, the ''Hosho''." [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/japan/ijn.htm Source].</ref>

She was used as a trials ship after 1924, stricken 1 April 1931, and scrapped in 1932.

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*"Sabre et pinceau", Christian Polak, Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie Française au Japon.
*''Histories of Naval organizations #8'', author: Ministry of the Navy, printed: Hara Shobō (Japan), original plot in January 1940, reprinted in October 1971
*Monthly Ships of the World, {{cite web |url=http://www.ships-net.co.jp/ |title=Kaijinsha}} (Japan)
**No. 481, ''Special issue Vol. 40, "History of Japanese aircraft carriers"'', May 1994
**No. 522, ''Special issue Vol. 47, "Auxiliary Vessels of the Imperial Japanese Navy"'', March 1997

==External links==
*[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/japan/wakamiya-av.htm IJN Wakayama seaplane carrier]
*[http://www.hazegray.org/navhist/carriers/ijn_sea.htm#waka World aircraft carrier list: IJN Wakamiya]
*[http://www.gwpda.org/naval/wtsing.htm The Wakayama-Maru off Tsingtao]
*[http://www.takahashistamp.com/2note32.htm Operations of Tsingtao] (Japanese)
*[http://www.interq.or.jp/www-user/mahoroba/MUSEUM/nenpyou.html Japanese aviation chronology] (Japanese)

{{WWI Japanese ships}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wakamiya}}
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[[Category:Seaplane tenders of the Imperial Japanese Navy]]
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